Wild man
The wild man (also wildman, or "wildman of the woods", archaically woodwose or wodewose) is a mythical figure that appears in the artwork and literature of medieval Europe, comparable to the satyr or faun type in classical mythology and to Silvanus, the Roman god of the woodlands.
The defining characteristic of the figure is its "wildness"; from the 12th century they were consistently depicted as being covered with hair. Images of wild men appear in the carved and painted roof bosses where intersecting ogee vaults meet in the Canterbury Cathedral, in positions where one is also likely to encounter the vegetal Green Man. The image of the wild man survived to appear as supporter for heraldic coats-of-arms, especially in Germany, well into the 16th century. Renaissance engravers in Germany and Italy were particularly fond of wild men, wild women, and wild families, with examples from Martin Schongauer (died 1491) and Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) among others.
Terminology
The first element of woodwose is usually explained as from wudu "wood", "forest". The second element is less clear. It has been identified as a hypothetical noun *wāsa "being", from the verb wesan, wosan "to be", "to be alive". The Old English form is unattested, but it would have been *wudu-wāsa or *wude-wāsa.
Woodwose
Each colder day, with stones in the kettle to last you till may
Gathering the damp wood to spark in the rain
When summer’s gone she lay with the gray queen
Huntsman walks ragged of cloth, ragged of war
In the winter dark, the shatter glass dog, it fell by the side.
There the cavern, fire will guide her
The old woman, charred coal burner
Slower to take, walk with the old ones the edge of the lake